Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Libertarian candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture Kevin Cherry will square off against his republican and democrat rivals this Thursday night at the Georgia Organics debate at Emory University. This should be a genuinely interesting event as the topic is sustainable agriculture and that has to include locally grown food.

The shindig is being put on by the fine folks over at Georgia Organics and they have a lot of ground to cover with the three candidates for Commissioner of Agriculture. How will Kevin do? Attend the event and see for yourself! It's at the Emory University School of Law Tull Auditorium from 7:30 to 9:00PM.

Here's a link for more info and be advised, some 600 people have rsvp'd to date.

Monday, August 30, 2010

You never know what you'll find when you google "Libertarian Shane Bruce" cause there's 374,000 returns. I own the first page but the results get dotty the further in you go. Since it's the end of the month, I tend to dig a little deeper than normal and lo and behold , right there on page 26 is this little gem.

Un-Freakin'-believable. That's the internet for you, naturally the site has a tiny disclaimer at the bottom that states it has nothing to do with the actual Rush Limbaugh, Thank God.

They are rather bold in the use of Rush Almighty's name and image, but apparently they don't get enough hits to justify legal action. Which is a relief to me as a Libertarian. But at least they spell my name right, and as PT Barnum observed, there is no bad press.

It does bring up an interesting line of thought however, what do you do if some big shot media guy or gal decides my campaign has merit? Is it good? Is it bad? Does it matter?

Either way me and my $19.95 campaign for Insurance Commissioner will keep chuggin' along on the highway to LibertyLand. I'm not going hell bent for leather, but I will cross the finish line. And maybe surprise some folks along the way.

Remember on 2 NOV 10 to cast your ballots for Liberty. Vote the Libertarian Ticket straight down the line!

Just in via email, I've been invited to and will attend the Atlanta Press Club's TV debate on Georgia Public Broadcasting scheduled for 24 OCT 10. It's a long way off and less than two weeks before the general election so I'm pleased as punch about the timing. Maybe one of my opponents will do or say something between now and then to liven up this rather dull race.

Mary still hasn't put anything fresh on her website since 23 JUN 10, but another 4 democrats have looked at her convention speech since Saturday. At that rate about another 120 viewers are waiting in the wings. That's not gonna put her over the top this fall. Ratchet it up democrats.

The APC also hit me up with a questionnaire so they could do a little show prep. It's a standard 3 bullet, 40 character limit self authored sound bite type thing and I had a pretty good time with it so it's reproduced below for your reading enjoyment:

2. Move Georgia from 8th highest auto insurance rates in the USA to 49th, where we rank in education, by cracking down on uninsured motorists.___________________________________________________________

Libertarian Candidate for Lt. Governor, Dan Barber, has his website up and running and is ready for supporters and donations to begin his run for this fall. His FaceBook page has been up since last week and is already gaining traction in this years highly competitive race so take a few and check the man out.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

This just in from the hardest working political activist in Georgia, Garland Favorito. Looks like theres an SEB meeting scheduled for this Tuesday and Garland needs your help.

What's the SEB? The State Elections Board baby. All the cool kids will be there to lord it over us proles and they'll do their best to make sure things stay the way they are. You know, restricted ballot access for anybody besides the republicans and democrats, the continued use of a threat to pull a SecState IG inspection out of their hats to squelch any inquires and continued insistence that the Diebold Voting Systems actually are trustworthy.

The Meeting is open to the public and any of you can show up and vent your spleen for two minutes. Wow, the board is so gracious to grant the citizenry two whole minutes each to ask the board why they can't get the job done. Garland has a bombshell to toss and needs another citizen to give him two minutes to complete the delivery.

I'm gonna try to be there so Garland gets his 4 minutes, courtesy of Liberty, to make his point. I encourage the readership to join in as well.

Here's the message from Garland:

VoterGa Supporters,

There will be a significant meeting of the State Election Board this Tuesday. During the opening public comments, you can speak for two minutes on verifiable voting, ballot access or any other topic if you get there before 10:00am and fill out a speaking request card. Your previous comments have been very helpful in showing that we have election integrity issues in Georgia. This may be the last SEB meeting before the November elections. I hope that some of you will be able to attend. I also expect to make a major announcement to inform the board about certain cases of election corruption during the public comments. If you can attend and don’t wish to speak I need one person to defer their time to me to complete my comments.

Thank You,

Garland

404 664-4044

The Office of the Secretary of State

Brian P. Kemp

Wesley B. Tailor

secretary of state

director of elections

SECRETARY OF STATE

LEGAL NOTICE

ELECTIONS DIVISION

***** NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING *****

Notice is hereby given that the Georgia State Election Board will conduct a public meeting on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. in the Sloppy Floyd Building, 5th Floor, Room 512 West Tower, located at 2 MLK Jr. Drive SE, Atlanta, Georgia 30334.

All interested parties are invited to attend.

For meeting information, please visit the State Election Board website at www.gaseb.org.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Democrat candidate for Insurance Commissioner Mary Squires gave a pretty good stump speech at the democrat convention in Athens and it's had 13 views since 20 AUG 10? What's wrong with that picture? It was a pretty good speech by democrat standards, that bit about being qualified for the State Fire Inpector because she went to NBC school was a stretch, but since I went to NBC school during my service career, I'm gonna have to give her a by on that.All I remember about the course was counting rentgens and using field expedient methods to measure the size of the mushroom cloud to see if it was time to BOAKYAG or not. There wasn't a whole lot of info on fire sprinklers or building codes and stuff, but maybe she went to a longer course. Maybe not.It's the 13 views I'm concerned about. Of the the 13 views, 3 of them came from the post I put up here on Bludgeon & Skewer on the 20th when Georgia Politico first released the video. It took me a while to find the copy because Georgia Politico used to be Georgia Liberal and must have changed the name to grab some extra hits on search phrases like that Paulding Pundit guy. Jeeze Louise, I put up a flippy of Libertarian Kevin Cherry's son, Andrew, endorsing his dad and it's got 44 downloads since the 22nd. You democrats need to step up and support your candidate and watch her damn stump speech. It's the polite thing to do. If you don't, then Ralphie is gonna win clean even after I take 15% out of his hide in the general and you don't want that. I don't want that either but I'm sure that Ralphie wouldn't mind. I know she can't win, it's republican year in a republican state and Ralph's got all the money insurance industry lobbyists and owners can legally shovel into his war chest not to mention $8 million bucks of his own, but how about giving it the old college try democrats. It's not like it's costing you aything except 6:43 of your life you'll never get back.So watch Mary's video and be quick about it.

Friday, August 27, 2010

21 Guns, baby, 21 Guns.We have a new member of the Libertarian Ticket this fall. Our original candidate for Lt Governor, Rhonda Martini, was faced with the difficult choice of continuing her candidacy and forgetting about a member of her family or getting out of the race and focusing on whats important. I believe she made the correct choice.Politics is politics and family is family. Politics are transient while our families form the foundations of who and what we are. Rhonda has been a Georgia Libertarian party stalwart and was instrumental in making sure that the Libertarian party ticket came together this year and got all 10 candidates on the ballot. That would not have happened without her, she truly made history with own two hands.That she is not a traditional politician is an understatement. We all watched our republican and democrat brothers and sisters eviscerate each other during the primary season. They are true examples of what the lust for political power will cause a supposedly sane person to do and say to gain it. Can you imagine Casey Cagle or Nathan Deal making the same decision as Rhonda? I can not.So a 21 gun salute to you Rhonda. I know you'll be around the campaign trail as the fall progresses, just not as much as I would have liked. Know that you have been instrumental in moving Liberty in Georgia closer to the goal line and that contibution is invaluable.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Libertarian Chuck Donovan will be a featured guest on tomorrows show down at Liberty Talk Radio in Macon. The readership is urged to tune in and listen to what the next Senator from Georgia has to say about the current state of affairs in Senatorial politics.

Liberty's own Kira Willis was the headliner in todays article over at the AJC's Get Schooled Blog on the Race to the Top grant award that was announced today.

When asked what she would do with a cool $400 Million Dollars over a 4 year period, Kira said:

Although I have been against receiving RT3 funds, we now must face the fact that they are here for four years. It is not a lot of money (one percent of our budget), but here’s what we can do with it: we can use it to fund innovation in education. I will vehemently and actively oppose any “created positions” that take more funds from our schools and from our kids. The last thing we need is to put another tier into the GADOE or into the local counties of Georgia.

Most of us who have been in education know that alternative tracks toward graduation is not a new concept, but it is a concept that we can sink our teeth into and give more students more opportunities for success. As State School Superintendent, my plan will be to afford local counties the freedom to give their students more avenues toward graduation. I will encourage them to find ways to ensure academic success for all of their students, not just the ones who plan on attending university. This could include an agricultural school, a computer technical track, a culinary arts track, or an arts diploma. True innovation in education means meeting the needs of each individual student. Innovation also means implementing real school choice for our children by opening more charter schools or simply allowing students to attend any school that they wish to attend.

As our RT3 application states, we will promote innovation. Local counties will have the ability to take the invitation to be creative and run with it. I will not create more administrative positions at the state and county levels.

When the money runs out, and it will, the schools that are successful with their improvements will have my recommendation to continue with their programs. This will help us to analyze how we can even further advance education for our children without keeping positions that will no longer be funded by the Race to the Top Grant.

You can check out her opponents boilerplate responses by heading over to the Get Schooled blog for yourself. Three short paragraphs of nothing are three short paragraphs of nothing, but republican Barge gets brownie points for flinging a good sized cowpie at democrat Martin.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Libertarian Chuck Donovan has released a copy of an endorsement by his old Squadron Commander from his fighter pilot days in the USMC with Marine Corps Fighter Attack Squadron VMFA-451.

From the endorsement:

“Chuck Donovan is one of those people with the vision and conviction needed ... NOW!”“As one with whom I flew, Chuck, ‘had my back’ years ago; today he "has the backs" of the people of Georgia. No better individual could be on your side in times like these when the going is toughest.”

“Twenty five years ago Chuck Donovan swore before me ‘ ... to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic ... !’ He has never disappointed that oath ... or me.”

“I commend him as one who'll absolutely ‘do Georgia proud’ in representing the great state in the nation's capital. Selfless, unwavering in moral courage - Chuck Donovan isn't going to apologize for standing strong in defense of all we hold dear in America. Defending our Constitution, Chuck will be-as he was for me - Georgia's wingman. Every fighter pilot will tell you; you trust your life to your wingman. I did. Georgia should. Chuck is all that ... and more.”

Click on over to Chucks website and read the whole thing, then slap that Donate button silly and give the man your support!

I just got an email from Garland Favorito on the state of the race for Secretary of State and David Chastain comes up with a win for Liberty. The complete text is below and you can get some additional info on the topics covered by a click trip to VoterGa.org.

Take it away Garland:

SECRETARY OF STATE BRIAN KEMP

On January 4, 2010 Gov. Perdue appointed former state senator, Brian Kemp, as Secretary of State (SOS) after Karen Handel resigned and Jim Cole withdrew from consideration. Brian immediately stated: "I will continue the honorable tradition of leadership demonstrated by Karen Handel, Cathy Cox, Lewis Massey, and others before them.” Cathy Cox acquired $54 million in voting machines that did not have an independent audit trail of the votes cast as required by law. (O.C.G.A. 21-2-301(b) of the 2001 GA Election Code) Her former boss, Lewis Massey, profited from that sale as the lobbyist for the equipment vendor, Diebold Elections Systems. Karen Handel reversed her position and supported the machines while receiving $25,000 in donations from people connected to the lobbying firm, Massey & Bowers. She also received untold thousands of dollars more in indirect contributions raised by their former partner Rob Simms, who she appointed as her deputy and campaign finance manager. Is this the tradition Georgians need?

On February 6 in the SOS debate at the Georgia Christian Alliance (GCA), Brian Kemp was asked what he would do if the legislature introduced a bill to replace the unverifiable voting machines. He replied: “Now If they want to, I would be ready to lead the charge… “On February 20, Tim Bearden introduced a bi-partisan bill with Karla Drenner to implement verifiable optical scan voting in Georgia. On February 22, Brian Kemp completely reversed his position when the AJC’s Jim Galloway asked him about the HB1215 bill. He refused to support it, stating that it “would be too much of a financial burden” even though his Elections Division had done no cost benefit analysis of the savings that optical scan equipment would have provided the state and its counties.

In early February, two Republican sponsored ballot access bills were introduced in the General Assembly and on March 1, Jason Pye asked Brian Kemp about them during an interview. He replied: “I haven’t even looked at those bills.”By March 18, four more ballot access bills were introduced, including two bi-partisan bills that would remove petitioning requirements throughout Georgia just as Florida did in 1999. Brian Kemp never supported any of them, thus thwarting all of them from getting hearings in the House Governmental Affairs Committee. http://www.jasonpye.com/blog/2010/03/podcast_with_brian_kemp.html

Brian Kemp consistently protected officials involved in the most serious of election fraud cases. In SEB case 2008-000133, a Lowndes Co. election official forced 947 test ballots into the actual 2008 totals, failed to reconcile those totals with the poll book totals to detect the discrepancy and blamed a voting machine technician when the state found out she certified incorrect results. In SEB case 2008-000136, a Douglas Co. Election Board member took home the 2008 election results overnight in a spreadsheet for manipulation, brought them back the next day and ordered a Diebold contractor to enter them into the county server before results were certified. Brian Kemp did not ensure that these officials were charged, or fined when the related cases were heard so they are free to count your votes again in November.

In March of 2010, the General Assembly filed impeachment articles against Kemp’s Inspector General (IG),Shawn LaGrua, for improperly handled investigations. On April 6, Walter Jones of Morris News, writing for the Florida Times Tribune and Jacksonville.com, asked about the impeachment resolution and Kemp replied: ”The filing of this resolution is a complete waste of the General Assembly’s time and Georgia taxpayers’ money.” Please read the details and tell me how any honest, unbiased, official could reach that conclusion.http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/fulltext/hr1714.htm.

REPRESENTATIVE GEORGANNA SINKFIELD

Georganna Sinkfield handily won the Democratic primary run-off over Gail Buckner who was the only person in the entire legislature on record as opposing all 2006 statewide verifiable voting and precinct audit initiatives. I gladly helped her team with a debate question she used during her successful runoff bid just as I did for Darryl Hicks in 2006. I also came to her defense by exposing Michael Mills’ falsehoods when he claimed that she did not state his position on ballot access correctly in the primary debate. I will gladly help her team again if she wants but it is important to know that Georganna entered the SOS race at the last minute without a platform, web site or command of issues regarding the SOS office. When interviewed by Atlanta Progressive News (APN) in June, her answers were so weak that the board endorsed Gail Buckner in the run-off even though she voted against Karla Drenner’s 2006 SB500 audit restoration amendment and Georganna voted for it. http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0654.html

During her APN interview, when Georganna was asked about the current voting equipment she replied: “I don't know of anything wrong with the current machines. Before we had the present machines we always had problems. We didn't have uniformity, and now we do.” She also stated that to replace the machines “the cost would be 100 million dollars” even though the cost would actually be about a third of that and the equipment could save millions of dollars annually in testing, certification, logistics and training. This may explain why she has not sponsored a bill to restore verifiable voting in Georgia.

When APN asked about the 2010 bi-partisan optical scan voting legislation introduced by Tim Bearden and Karla Drenner, Georganna was unaware of it. APN explicitly asked: “DID YOU SUPPORT HB 1215 IN THE GEORGIA LEGISLATURE TO GET OPTICAL SCAN MACHINES AND ELIMINATE DRE'S?” Georganna replied: “I don't remember it [the bill]” That comprehensive bill had been introduced four months earlier and it was mentioned on the Atlanta Journal Constitution web site. How could a highly experienced legislator running for Secretary of State not know about such a critical piece of elections legislation if she is committed to open and fair elections?

When APN asked: “Do you know about the blank votes in the Cobb County SPLOST?” Georganna replied: “No.” In that contest, 285 blank voted ballots were cast although the referendum was the only item on the ballot. It was decided by only 114 votes out of 39,780 votes cast. Over 800 million in new taxes were assessed, the majority being paid by Cobb residents. The contest was plagued by unexplained modem transmission difficulties, reporting delays and a shift in preliminary results that took the SPLOST from apparent defeat to a razor thin victory. Each of Georganna’s primary opponents had commented on the SPLOST in interviews previously published on the APN website so she has no excuse for not knowing. (SPLOST- Special Purpose Local Option Tax)

While strongly claiming that she is for removing Georgia’s archaic 1943 petitioning requirements, Georganna has never introduced a bill in her 28 year career to do so. If she was unwilling to attempt to correct the problem in 28 years why would anyone be naïve enough to believe she would do so now?

In the fight for impartial investigations, Georganna has been absent without leave (AWOL). I have never seen her present at any State Election Board (SEB) meeting in the last couple of years while we have been fighting for verifiable voting and consistent treatment of all citizens during election investigations.

DAVID CHASTAIN

David Chastain, the former Executive Director of the Libertarian Party, is also on the ballot for Secretary of State in November. He was the leading Libertarian vote getter in 2006 as an Education Secretary candidate and actually received more votes than Georganna and Brian did in their respective local General Assembly races. Presently he is a Senior Logistics Management Analyst in the defense industry.

David has been working to get ballot access for independent candidates for years. In March of 2010, he wrote an open public letter to Speaker of the House, David Ralston, in support of HB1257. He was also on the ballot access team that reviewed and helped draft HB1425. Both of these bi-partisan bills, introduced in the 2010 session, would have removed petitioning requirements in Georgia just as Florida did successfully in 1999. Neither of the bills got a hearing because Secretary Kemp did not support them.

David has also been working to restore verifiable voting for about five years. Just this year, he supported the HB1215 bill opposed by Secretary Kemp who contended that “the machines are trustworthy.” at the February 6 GCA debate. David Chastain stunned the secretary in his opening statement at the same debate when he asked the audience: “I would like to see a show of hands as to how many people think that the Diebold voting machines are accurately recording all of your votes?” In a full auditorium of about 300 people, NO ONE RAISED THEIR HANDS!

David provided most of the research into the dubious Cobb SPLOST referendum, one of several election controversies that still swirl around our current unverifiable voting equipment. In January, he explained some of the well known abnormalities at one of the State Election Board meetings he attended. Shortly after that, the Inspector General, Shawn LaGrua, opened an investigation without contacting him and then shut it down after claiming everything was in order. In October when he found out, David replied to the board with a list of his questions that were never answered. He was also one of three people who filed a complaint to the Georgia State Inspector General about improperly handled investigations in voting machine related cases.http://www.voterga.org/more/index.cfm?Fuseaction=more_15727

The State IG subsequently ruled that the techniques of an investigator were not within their domain of scope for the office. The State IG was later forced to recuse herself from investigations regarding voting machines because her husband was a partner in the same law firm with Michael Bowers, father of the co-founder Massey & Bowers, the voting machine vendor lobbyist. The complaints, including the one filed by David Chastain, eventually became the subject of some of the impeachment articles filed in the Georgia General Assembly against Shawn LaGrua, who was protected by Secretary Kemp.

The facts demonstrate that David Chastain has done everything within his power to further the cause of verifiable voting for Georgians, open ballot access for all candidates and impartial investigations that are free of influence from lobbyists and political motivations. He has done all of this as a volunteer without receiving a dime of taxpayer money. His opponents have taken no substantive action on any of these matters in their entire legislative careers all the while operating at the expense of the Georgia taxpayers. Worse yet, the current Secretary of State even helped prevent volunteer efforts on these causes from being successful.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Augusta's own Taylor Bryant lays out the first position paper of his campaign for the Augusta School Board. From Taylor's FaceBook page:

We, as a county, are at a turning point in our history. We have always been a force to be reckoned with in the industrialized south, being centralized from Atlanta air hubs and coastal ports in Charleston and Savannah. Our transportation infrastructure, rail and Interstate, provide the means to get goods and raw materials in and out of the area. We have low cost real estate and sprawling areas of land easily converted to factory space.

So why isn't Augusta, GA considered an industry powerhouse?

In my belief, we have less to offer due to not having a well trained workforce able to meet the hands on requirements that industry wants. We have great secondary education colleges to provide this type of training. Fine examples are Augusta Tech and Aiken Tech. We are simply missing a link between the last years of High School, and the first years of Technical training.

We, as a whole, have to bring ourselves to the conclusion that not every person in school will find themselves in a four year institution. This is not a bad thing, as I have proven in my long career as a European auto technician. Without my skills I learned in High School, Tech School, and on the job training, I'm not sure where I would be right now. There are people out there like me without guidance, and they are slipping trough the cracks.

My plans are to find students that are not planning to attend a four year program and provide them links to technical, clerical, or vocational training. This could be started in 10th grade, negating the dropout rate and giving kids something to shoot for.

We must include outside agencies, such as factories, unions, job placement companies, and non-profits in our plans. We have after school programs now for children such as Jessee Norman School of Arts to teach music, art, and dance. I would love to see an after school program so kids could learn welding, electronics, auto repair, and HVAC repair provided by a nonprofit.

Ideas like this will send a clear message to industries that we are open for business and lower our dropout rate. We need productive citizens, and this is yet another tool in increasing that outcome.

It's the first time John will square off with republican Nathan Deal and democrat Roy Barnes this election cycle.

Libertarian Candidate for Governor, John Monds will be at Monday night's NBMBAA Governor's forum in Atlanta. The National Black MBA Association is putting on this forum for a itself and a host of other affiliated organizations so that it's membership will be able to make informed decisions about which candidate will be the best choice this fall.

The event starts at 6:00PM and if you're not a member of the NBMBAA, there's a $15.00 ticket charge. Please see the details at the NBMBAA website and get your tickets online if you plan to attend.

And plan to attend, I urge the readership to pull out the stops and show up to support John in this first forum appearance. It'll be a blast!

Libertarian candidate for Governor of Georgia, John Monds, is experiencing an earned media tidal wave this weekend. In the last 3 days he's been mentioned in a bevy of articles around the state from Rome to Savannah as he begins to campaign in earnest for the top job in Georgia. Republican sniping has started as well.

Here's some links to illustrate the change from "John Who" to "John Monds":

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Epic news on the polling front folks, looks like Libertarian John Monds has broken through the outer entrenchments of the poll barrier and is in the hunt. The latest WSB TV/Insider advantage poll has him at 5% with 9% undecided making a whopping 14% of respondents that just don't care for the Brand X republican and democrat offerings.

It's time to take to the blog-o-sphere and post your version of this epic bit of news far and wide. I've already taken the opportunity over at the AJC's Georgia Elections Central and urge the readership to pile on.

Here's my breadcrumbs:

Bludgeon & Skewer

August 19th, 20107:22 pm

Greetings All,

Epic News isn’t it? A poll for the Georgia Governors race has been released that includes the Libertarian Candidate John Monds! That has never happened before, it is simply historical. And the icing on the cake is that John is already polling at 5% with a massive 9% of respondents still undecided. 14% of Georgians are saying that the same old same old republican and democrat candidates just ain’t gonna cut it anymore.

That’s great news for Liberty folks. And bad news for our brothers and sisters marooned over there in republican/democrat land. The fall is still quite a ways off and there is still time for you consider who’ll you will cast your ballot for this time around. Will you waste your vote on Nathan Deal or Roy Barnes or will you look to the future and cast your vote for Liberty?

Vote for Smaller Government, Lower Taxes and More Freedom! Vote for Libertarian John Monds for Governor of Georgia!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Big news folks, I'll be doing some of that Blog Talk Radio stuff in the near future courtesy of Mitchell Clark way down in Macon, Georgia. I can't wait to to hear my own dulcet tones coming out of the squawk box next to the old PC.

Turns out Mitchell's been preaching to the choir about Liberty for a while now and his blog can be found at Liberty-Talk.com . I've added him to the blogroll and encourage the readership to head over and check him out.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

How else would an average Joe like me be able to find out what's going on in the myriad of publications servicing the Insurance industry if they didn't exist? There's a rather mundane article over at the InsuranceJournal.com that gave a standard recap of the state of the race post run-off and, lo and behold, no comments!

Not any more. Head over and take a peek, leave some breadcrumbs and on to the next. Here's my contribution:

Greetings All,

I note with interest your short article on the state of the race for Insurance Commissioner here in Georgia. Brief and to the point, it has one glaring omission.

Me.

My name is Shane Bruce and I am the Libertarian Citizen Politician who is also running for this office this fall. I and all 10 of the Libertarian Candidates for Statewide office in Georgia this year will be pounding the drum for Liberty and we will be heard. Are there problems at the Office of the Insurance Commissioner? Certainly. Do republican Ralph Hudgens or democrat Mary Squires offer any tangible change? Certainly not. They are the vanguard of the same old same old and if either of the two win, Georgia will continue to suffer from extravagant auto insurance rates (8th highest in the USA), total disregard for those Georgians saddled with "pre-existing" medical conditions and other outrages.

I have sworn an oath to not accept any campaign donations from people who work in any of the industries regulated by the Office of the Insurance Commissioner and have challenged my opponents to follow suit. I am confident they will not.

If any of your readership would like to know more about this important race in Georgia, feel free to contact me.

Monday, August 16, 2010

The monthly meeting of the DeKalb County affiliate of the Libertarian Party of Georgia will be tomorrow night at the Famous Pub in Tocco Hills shopping Plaza. Interested in contacting politically aware citizens hell bent on breaking the back of the two party system in Georgia? Come on down!

Vice Chair David Montané will provide an update on the progress of the CADS (Citizens Audit of DeKalb Schools) project, DeKalb LP's own Shane Bruce will provide an update on the State of the Race for Insurance Commissioner and don't forget it's book exchange night!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

I'm just back from Libertarian candidate for Secretary of State David Chastain's fundraiser today and what do I see on FaceBook? A nifty article over at The Free-Independent-Sun by Jack Wagner that speculates on possible reasons for the exclusion of third party candidates from the standard polls we see during the campaign season. I'm a poll junkie so I tried to add my two cents, but was unable to log-in. As I've stated before, my cyber-ninja skills are weak.

Never one to let a good post go to waste, I've reproduced it here at Bludgeon & Skewer for the readership. Head over and read the original article as it is excellent food for thought. Then take action!

Greetings All,

In interesting compilation of facts on recent Rasmussen polling here in Georgia. A a fellow Libertarian Candidate for statewide office here in Georgia, I have watched with glee as "undecided" and "other" have reached numbers as high as 68% of poll respondents as this election has played out. I believe your assessment of standard polling practices is spot on but offer an alternative rational for the exclusion of Libertarian and other third party candidates from these regular injections of "fact" into the campaign cycle.

We Libertarians do not commission polls in Georgia. Polling operations are businesses first and "barometers" of public opinion second. Like traditional media, polling operations are part and parcel of the parasitic drag that has high jacked the political process and made it the preserve of the existing well heeled republican-democrat duopoly. If you won't pay, they won't play.

Are polls that do not reflect the candidates who are listed on the ballot legitimate? Certainly not. Are polls high minded public service information providers? Absolutely not. They are in the employ of the candidates who pay them. Are the media mavens who wave their results to and fro in attempts to influence the outcomes of elections unbiased? You tell me.

I do not know the other candidates mentioned in your article, but I do know Libertarian John Monds. He is an honorable man, trustworthy and resolute in his purpose. He has begun his historic long march to November and needs your support to get there. Visit his website and learn more about the man. Go to his FaceBook page and join with the community of other citizens who have decided that he is the best choice for Georgia this year. With your support he can achieve results for Liberty.

Liberty's own Taylor Bryant is running with the big dogs in Augusta's race for the District 6 School Board seat. Augusta Chronicle reporter Silvia Cooper lead off with Taylor in yesterdays lengthy article on the ins and outs of the Augusta political scene and remarked on Taylor's unique ability to draw support for his efforts from all parts of the political spectrum.

Check out the article and then head over to Taylor's website and get involved. He needs your vote, he needs your support and he needs some donations to fuel and fund his run for the local school board.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Chuck Donovan gets it. Vote for your principles, not against your fears. It's a pretty simple choice this fall, republican Johnny Isakson or democrat Micheal Thurmond will do nicely if you insist on more or the same old, same old. If you want to bring change to Georgia, if you insist that future must be better than the present, if you value Liberty and all it's blessings, then Vote for Libertarian Chuck Donovan!

Please mark your calendar now and plan to attend the first campaign event for David Chastain's campaign for Georgia Secretary of State this Sunday afternoon, August 15th, @ 4PM. Help us raise the much needed funds to take our message of Integrity, Independence and Impartiality throughout Georgia. Also, I hope you will come sign up to volunteer.

Come enjoy hot appetizers and cash bar, learn about our campaign plans, sign up to volunteer and help us rally our resources to elect the first Libertarian Secretary of State in Georgia. Suggested Donation $25.00.